


superheroes don't rest in peace

by Raja_Myna



Category: Original Work
Genre: But Not That Cheap, Character Death, Death is cheap, Gen, More Death Than Resurrection, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 14:51:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10699281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raja_Myna/pseuds/Raja_Myna
Summary: (writing b.r.b. on gravestones)





	superheroes don't rest in peace

It's starting to feel like a farce. His heart is torn in so many directions at once and the tears still flow naturally, but a part of him is wondering _how long will you be gone this time_? Another is saying _will you stay dead this time_ and it brings more tears to his eyes. Fear. Mostly, he's still caught on _I miss you_. A part of him wants to break down and scream at the unfairness of the world, but is it really unfair if they'll meet again?

It's just like an extended vacation, really. An almost chuckle breaks past his lips and he feels a hand on his shoulder.

“I'll see you soon,” he murmurs, and those around him are scared for his sake, because what can a proclamation like that mean, if not an intention to take his own life so they can reunite?

_I'll wait for you_ , he doesn't say. They would think him ~~even more~~ mad should the words ever pass his lips, and he can't deal with that right now.

_Maybe when you're back, though_ . _I'll tell you that I waited_.

_-_-_-_

It's an eternal dance with death, this thing they do. A single misstep and it's over. She has known it intellectually, but it hasn't been real until now. And now is a bit too late.

Still, she's determined now more than ever to keep fighting the good fight, and do it in his name in addition to all her previous reasons. The world needs heroes and she's willing to oblige.

When he turns up a year later she doesn't know whether to hug him for being back or punch him in the face for taking so long.

_-_-_-_

This is a moment for last requests. For a grand unveiling of secrets that probably aren't really secrets at all, but they all pretend they are. _I love you, I'm sorry, take care of my cat, will you tell them I…_ but, damn it all, this isn't his first rodeo. He glances over to the kid with a hand over his mouth. It's the kid's first, though.

Ah, _hell_.

“It'll be all right, kiddo,” he chokes out. A blurry shape lands beside him and takes his hand.

“Save your breath,” she says and he knows this voice.

“Sorry,” he says, “'s just a little too late this time.”

She squeezes his hand to her chest, just shy of the force where it starts to hurt. “Give 'em hell.”

He will. And he closes his eyes on the fighting and the pain, confident in his friends and their strength. Everything fades to black and then it returns and he wakes up. He doesn't know how much time has passed but he knows things have changed, because the kid is there looking at him, not with wonder at his resurrection but with suspicion at this person wearing a familiar face.

And so it begins again. He hopes he really is the real one and not an infiltrator clone. That would suck.

_-_-_-_

She's starting to wonder why they even lower coffins into the ground anymore. Surely it would just make the reawakening that much more traumatic, having to dig their way out after just having died.

Of course, it could be months before they return, but couldn't they figure out a way to preserve bodies safely instead of relying on some screwed up quirk of the universe to bring them back whole and undamaged? It has happened that some have been resurrected without their bodies recovered from the damage incurred by death followed by months or even years of slow decomposition. It is never pretty.

_-_-_-_

_Ah, shit_ , he thinks, _not again_.

_-_-_-_

She's tired. But there's only so many things she can do now, and rescue's not coming fast enough. They _are_ coming, she knows that, but they will be too late. She's held on as long as she could.

The only choice now is whether or not to leave a corpse for them to find.

_Live fast, die young and leave a mutilated corpse_ could be the slogan for superhero work. If you leave a corpse at all, and her powers do give her the choice not to.

But she remembers the despairing hope of not finding a body, the searches that can go on for months, years, until the person is resurrected even. She doesn't want to give them any false hope. So she breathes out her last and pretends she can hear the voices of her friends.

_-_-_-_

This “no one stays dead” clause only applies to superheroes. Or at least to the super community. He doesn't know much about the so-called bad guys, but he's sure some of them have been pronounced dead only to show up some months later, wreaking havoc once again.

It does not apply to the common man and as his little sister is buried to the grief of so many he briefly entertains the thought that the Halloween costume she'd worn last year could at least give her one trip back, if not the endless ones the heroes seem to enjoy (suffer?).

If it does, he will never stand in her way again as she tries to badger her way into self-defense lessons, even knowing what she will do with them. _The risk would be worth it_ , he tells himself, pleads with whatever higher power decided that this is the way, _just give h_ _er_ _a chance_.


End file.
